It Started There
by NinjaDevil2000
Summary: Coffee Shop Muggles!AU! Harry loses another job and goes to work with Luna. Over time, the bond between them grows, and at one point, will become so strong, something happens not one of them ever saw coming.


**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I say this all the time, like suddenly I'm going to be J.K. Rowling. Yeah, in my dreams. Trust me, I have like eight HP funko pops, a replica of Dumbledore's wand, and a Hogwarts poster. Aside from the books and movies, that's it. **

**Author's Note: Thank you so much for taking the time to read this. This story was only achieved in like five days, so it may not be as good as some of my others, but I do hope you enjoy it still. I feel extremely bad because I hardly integrated the prompts at all. I was extremely concerned with making the theme work, that I hardly remembered about the prompts in time. Thank you for taking the time to read, and it would really mean a lot of you'd review.**

**Written for the IWSC, Round 8: Muggle Studies.**

**School and Year: Mahoutokoro, Year 2**

**Theme: Coffee Shop Muggles - chosen for me by my teammate Kayti.**

**Main Prompt: Green**

**Additional Prompt: Car Park**

**Word count: 1797**

**Huge shout-out to my friend, Sophie! She's an amazing beta and read my story even though I got it to her super late. Thank you so much Sophie. You really help make my stories better. :) *slides butterbeer over to you and hands you a Chocolate Frog* You rock!**

_xxxxxxxxxxx_

"Ugh!" Harry groaned, plopping himself into a squashy armchair in the middle of a near-empty coffee shop.

"What's wrong with you?" Ron asked, interrupting his girlfriend, Hermione, stream of complaints about poaching.

"Ugh!" Harry groaned again. "I've been fired!"

"What?" Hermione stopped her flow of complaints to look at her best friend. "Again?"

"What happened?" Hermione asked.

"Well," Harry began, "I sorta called my boss a git."

"Harry!" Ron and Hermione groaned together. "You do know that you can't keep calling your bosses that, right?" Ron continued, while Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Harry said, fiddling with some loose threads on the armrest of his chair. "I don't know what to do now. That's the third job I've lost in four months. Any ideas?"

Ron and Hermione exchanged looks. Harry had been fired from accounting, the police force, and catering. They weren't sure what options were left, for the ones they thought Harry might enjoy, he turned down the moment he heard them.

At that moment, their friend, Luna, walked in from the drizzling rain outside, closing her umbrella and setting it by the door. "One cappuccino, please?" she asked the man behind the counter, pulling out a note and laying it down.

"Oh, hello there!" she said, noticing them as the man began to make her drink. "How fairs your day?"

"Fine," Ron and Hermione said together.

"Terrible," Harry groaned. "What about you, Luna?"

"Oh, quite well, actually," she said, smiling as she was handed her drink. "How come your day's been terrible, Harry?"

"Oh, I got fired from another job," he said embarrassedly. "It was stupid anyway."

"Well, you could always come work with me," Luna said in a matter-of-fact tone, walking towards them.

"At the zoo?" Harry clarified.

Luna nodded. "I enjoy playing with the animals," she said, sipping her drink. "I think it's good for you as well."

"How so?" Harry asked, intrigued.

"Well, you get to talk to them and take care of them," Luna began, "and I think taking care of animals would be good for you."

"Luna?" Harry asked curiously. "What kinda stuff would I do there?"

"Well," she said thoughtfully, sitting down on the couch next to Ron and Hermione. "You'd start out with a trainer to make sure you knew how to do everything properly, taking care of the animals, feeding them the right amount, that sort of thing, and we do have a position open," she finished.

"What position is that?" Harry asked, ignoring Ron's and Hermione's looks of confusion.

"Actually," Luna said, smiling slightly, "it's the position right below me. The girl who I trained last got bitten by a meerkat and quit right after."

Ron snorted while Harry and Hermione chuckled.

Luna continued. "We'd be feeding all the smaller land animals. That's what I do. I wish I could feed the big cats or something, but when I asked my supervisor about it, he firmly refused, saying it was not a suitable job for a woman.

"So, I'm sorta stuck with taking care of the smaller animals; not that I mind, though. They're better listeners than the larger animals."

Harry hesitated, then spoke again. "Do you think I'd be a good fit for a job like that?"

"Oh, yes," Luna replied immediately. "You're so sweet and kind. The animals would love you, I'm sure of it. I'll talk to my supervisor about it, if you'd like?"

Harry nodded. "That'd be great, Luna. Thanks."

"Of course." Luna smiled. "Well, I must go. I'm meeting my father for lunch. We're going to talk about a new species of butterfly that is going to be created next year. Ron," she added, turning to him as she stood up, "be sure to tell Ginny hello for me, okay?"

"Sure thing," Ron assured her

"I'll let you know what my supervisor says, okay, Harry?"

"Sounds good. See you later," Harry replied, smiling after Luna as she left. Unbeknownst to him, Ron and Hermione had just winked at each other, as if knowing what was to come between their two friends.

_xxxxxxxxxx_

Two weeks later, Harry was going to the London Zoo for his first day of training. As he pulled into a front parking spot, he spotted Luna standing outside the large oak doors which were opened into the collection of animal-filled buildings.

"Hey, Luna!" Harry shouted, walking up to her after locking his truck and grabbing his new uniform out of it, for it was a chilly day.

"Harry!" Luna said. "Do you think you're ready?"

"Yeah, I think so," Harry replied. "What are we going to be doing first?"

"Well, I have to do my normal work, so you're just going to kind of watch me and help me sometimes," Luna replied as she led him into the zoo. "Does that sound okay to you?"

"Sounds great!" Harry replied.

_xxxxxxxxxx_

Over the next month, Luna showed Harry how to do everything, and according to her, he was doing quite well. All the animals he saw seemed to really like him, and Luna said that the animals told her so. Harry smiled at that and wondered how Luna could be so sure of what the animals felt.

More curious than the progress he made at his job, though, was the progress Harry made in his relationship with Luna. He had never thought about Luna in a romantic way before, always seeing her as a friend. But as they had started to spend more time together, whether it be by walking through the green grass and trees of the zoo, talking while getting some coffee, or merely standing next to her, he found himself looking at her in ways he never had before. He started to notice her form and prettiness, how she talked, and how she acted.

Sometimes, Luna would show him how to hold an animal or feed something properly, and every time their hands met, it was like a tiny shiver went down Harry's spine. He wondered if Luna felt the same.

On one such occasion, Harry could hardly concentrate on the animals he was feeding, for his mind was only on Luna. He turned to look at her and her smile, while they fed and talked to the anteaters.

"OW!" Harry suddenly yelped in pain. "Dammit!" Harry continued to let out a string of swear words and he fell to the ground, clutching his hand against his chest. Luna dropped the hay she held and ran to him, kneeling down next to the man whose eyes were watering.

"Harry! Harry! What happened?"

"I – I wasn't paying attention," Harry gasped. "It bit me!"

Luna took his hand in hers and looked at it, turning it over in her hand tenderly. The ring finger of his right hand was swollen and bleeding, with two large teeth marks indented in them, showing where the anteater's teeth had crushed it.

"C'mon, Harry," Luna said. "You need to go to a doctor right now, or else that bite will get infected."

Luna helped Harry up and they made their way out of the zoo and to Harry's car.

"Here," Harry said, fishing his keys out of his pocket with his healthy hand. Luna drove them to the nearest emergency room, all the while talking about random things in an effort to keep Harry's thoughts on anything else but the pain in his hand.

Thankfully, the doctor wasn't very busy, so they were able to get in quickly.

"Alright," the doctor said, once they had met and introduced themselves. "I'm going to have to give you this antibiotic, okay? It'll keep infection from setting in."

The doctor pulled out a needle and filled it with medicine, while Harry visibly stiffened. Sharp things had never sat well with him after what had happened to his parents, for they had been cruelly murdered in an alley with a knife when Harry was only four years old.

"Harry, it's okay, look at me," Luna said, and Harry was grateful that she knew about his past. "Look at me."

Harry turned his face and looked at Luna and her silvery-blonde hair; her gray-blue eyes met his green ones.

"Ready?" the doctor asked. Harry winced as he felt the point of the needle enter his skin, but the pain was suddenly obliterated as his lips were enveloped by Luna's. She kissed him for what felt like an hour, but was really just a couple of seconds. When she pulled away, he noticed that the doctor had already finished with the shot.

"All done," the doctor said. "We need to do some stitches and then you'll be free to go, Mr. Potter."

"Thank you, Doctor," Harry said gratefully, slightly short of breath due to the kiss he had unexpectedly just received.

While his finger was being stitched up, Harry kept his focus on Luna and only Luna. She just smiled at him and talked about creatures she believed existed. Things like unicorns and fairies, and, while Harry had never believed in anything like that before, he suddenly found himself wondering if they could be real, for the way Luna talked, it was as if they really were alive.

Once he had gotten stitched up, Luna led him out of the building and out onto the sunny street.

"C'mon, Harry," Luna said, "Let's go get some coffee."

"Sounds wonderful," Harry replied, and he leaned in slightly, pecking her on the cheek. Luna blushed but smiled at him happily.

As they reached a small coffee shop, Harry opened the door for Luna, to which she blushed again. They purchased their drinks, then started talking like they had never talked before. They talked about their families, their pasts, their wishful futures, and everything else. Before they knew it, the windows had darkened and the manager walked over to tell them the shop was closing.

"I wish we didn't have to go back to our homes," Harry said, stroking her hair.

"I wish that too," Luna replied. She was silent for a moment then smiled. "What if we didn't?"

"Didn't what?"

"Go to our different homes," Luna clarified.

Harry grinned and pulled her close to him. "What did you have in mind?"

_xxxxxxxxxx_

The next few months were some of the best of Harry's life. The time he spent with Luna was extravagant, filled with random conversations, wild excursions, and lots of laughter.

Eventually, Harry was so caught up in love, that he decided to plan a meeting between himself and Luna's father, Xander. Harry asked for Xander's permission to marry Luna, which he graciously gave.

Ten months later, in the warm spring colors of May, Harry Potter and Luna Lovegood were married.

And it had all started in a little coffee shop.


End file.
